[Pending] The Timeline in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Journeys: where sales and marketing align

In today’s dynamic sales and marketing landscape, collaboration is everything. The Timeline in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Journeys bridges the gap between these teams by offering a complete customer view.

11/03/2025

At first glance, sales and marketing seem like natural allies. Yet in many companies, they still work in silos, using separate systems that don’t communicate well—resulting in lost or fragmented customer information. Marketing generates leads through campaigns, webinars, events, and website visits, but once a lead becomes marketing qualified (MQL) and is handed over to sales, the context often disappears. Sales typically only sees basic CRM data, without access to valuable insights such as previous marketing interactions or extended company info (like NACE code, revenue, number of employees, website, or LinkedIn profile).

Here’s what that looks like in practice: a lead downloads an eBook, clicks multiple times on an email campaign, and is passed on to sales as “warm.” But when the sales rep picks up the lead, they only see a name and company—no clear indication of the person’s interest.

Or picture this: a sales rep calls a prospect unaware that they just requested a demo via the website. Result? A disconnected experience for the customer, a frustrated sales rep, and a lower chance of conversion.

Plenty has been written about the need to break down silos between sales and marketing, but few solutions address the “how.” The Timeline in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Journeys offers a practical solution: a shared view of all interactions that brings both teams together around the same customer story.

What is the Timeline in Dynamics 365, and why is it a gamechanger?

The Timeline in Dynamics 365 gives you a central overview of all interactions between your company and a customer. You can access it through a specific journey in Customer Insights – Journeys, where each step in the customer journey is recorded. Or you can view the timeline via an individual contact profile, under the ‘Timeline’ tab.

Originally, the timeline showed only typical sales interactions—emails, appointments, follow-ups, deals. Today, it includes marketing data too, such as:

Website visits and digital campaign activity
Webinar and event participation
Whitepaper downloads and other marketing collateral
Purchase history and past sales conversations
External touchpoints such as ERP activity or ad interactions

The power of integrated marketing and sales data

In short, the Timeline helps sales and marketing work more efficiently and deliver a unified customer experience. Sales teams gain deeper context, allowing them to act on opportunities with precision. Because the Timeline merges data from both departments, leads are less likely to fall through the cracks. It also enables sales to act faster when there’s clear buying intent.

Example: A lead visits a product page several times and downloads a whitepaper. Instead of a cold outreach, the sales rep sees this activity on the Timeline and can start a tailored, relevant conversation—shortening the sales cycle and increasing conversion rates.

All data in one place

To make this unified view possible, the Timeline pulls data from several systems:

Dynamics 365 Sales: for sales-related interactions like emails, meetings, and deals
Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Journeys: for marketing activity such as campaigns and website visits
External systems: Microsoft products and other platforms can be connected, such as ERP systems or tracking tools like Dealfront, which provide insight into anonymous company visits
Customer Insights Data Platform (CIDP): enriches and analyzes customer data. If a customer has interacted with both sales and marketing, CIDP merges that data and can even predict the likelihood of a purchase

External sources like Google Ads and LinkedIn can also be integrated:

Google Ads: Ad clicks and conversions can be imported via Microsoft Customer Insights – Data or tools like Zapier.
LinkedIn: Leads and activity from LinkedIn Ads or Sales Navigator can be synced via the LinkedIn Connector.

Customizing your own Timeline

You can customize your Timeline to meet the specific needs of your organization by setting up integrations with the systems that matter most to your business.

Within Dynamics 365, you can apply filters to display only the most relevant interactions—for example, high-value deals or marketing campaigns with the highest conversion rates.

By using dashboards and AI analysis within Customer Insights, you gain a clear view of customer behavior and can proactively respond to opportunities.

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The timeline’s role in long B2B sales cycles

The Timeline is especially useful in B2B markets, where long and complex sales cycles are standard. It supports:

Overview and structure: In long sales processes involving multiple decision-makers and touchpoints, the Timeline provides a visual and chronological view of all interactions, ensuring that sales reps don’t miss anything.
Better follow-up: B2B sales cycles can last from several months to years. The Timeline helps sales and account managers engage with prospects at the right time and quickly retrieve previous interactions.
Data-driven decision-making: As an organization, you want to make strategic decisions based on collected and analyzed data rather than relying solely on intuition or experience. The Timeline plays a crucial role in this. By offering a detailed historical overview of communication and activities, businesses can identify trends and pain points and adjust their strategy accordingly.
More efficient collaboration: Sales and marketing teams can more easily share information about a customer or prospect, ensuring everyone stays up to date on progress without losing valuable insights.

In short, the Timeline acts as a shared memory—an essential tool for managing and closing long, complex B2B deals.

Ready to build your own Timeline?

Curious how your business can make the most of the Timeline? Reach out to one of our Dynamics 365 experts and discover how to bring sales and marketing closer together.